Eisen Viljoen Normandie 2010

During a wine excursion in South Africa, Swedish sommelier Jakob Bjurström came across Eisen Viljoen Normandie 2010 but couldn’t find any information about it so sent me an email in the hope that I might be able to shed some light. I’d never heard of it but enquiries via Twitter yielded the following:

The farm Normandie, next to L’Ormarins in Franschhoek, is owned by Cape Town born and internationally successful fashion designer Mark Eisen and Johan Viljoen, former Vinpro viticultural consultant, is winemaker.

The 2010, apparently a Bordeaux-style red blend, is R469.50 a bottle from Wine Concepts on Kloof. Ignore the striking but impractical double waxing as the wine inside is pretty smart. There’s red fruit, dried herbs and subtle oak. It’s medium bodied and well balanced – fresh acidity and very fine tannins – and the overall impression is savoury rather than sweet. Surprisingly elegant and old-fashioned, which is to say not over-worked, my one misgiving is that it’s pretty much ready to drink right now.